American Journal Of Philological Sciences
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VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue08 2025
PAGE NO.
32-35
10.37547/ajps/Volume05Issue08-08
Historical Interpretation of The Toponymy of Namangan
In Zahiriddin Muhammad Bobur's Work "Boburnoma"
Jalilova Madina Murotovna
Independent researcher in the specialty of NamDU 10.00.01-Uzbek language, faculty of philology, department of uzbek language,
Uzbekistan
Received:
16 June 2025;
Accepted:
12 July 2025;
Published:
14 August 2025
Abstract:
In the article, describes the explanations, interpretations and variants of the historical toponyms of the
Namangan region given in the work “Boburnoma” by Zahiriddin Muhammad Bobur
.
Keywords
:
Toponymy, toponym, historical toponym, oikonym, hydronym, toponymic indicator, hydronymic
indicator, historical-etymological source, lexical basis.
Introduction:
In world literature, the work of Zahiriddin
Muhammad Bobur "Boburnoma" stands out for its
extremely comprehensiveness. The work "Boburnoma"
is also important for us in this respect, as it contains
valuable information about the toponymy of Central
Asia, Afghanistan and India. In particular, we can find
very interesting information in the memoir about the
cities, villages and streams located in Namangan, one
of the most beautiful and unique regions of our
Republic.
Bobur takes a responsible and scientific approach to
toponymy. He does not just cite toponyms, but
provides interesting information about their location,
nature, vegetation, and climate. For example, one of
the most frequently mentioned and widely described
cities among the Namangan toponyms in the work is
Akhsi.
This
city,
called
Akhsi//Akhsikent//Akhsiket//Akhsikat in historical
sources, is one of the ancient settlements in Central
Asia, located near the confluence of the Kosansoy River
into the Syrdarya. The ruins of the city are located on
the Syrdarya side of the present-day village of Shahand,
Namangan region.
Main part
Akhsi was founded in the 3rd-2nd centuries, and in the
9th-10th centuries it was the capital of the Fergana
Valley. It was completely destroyed by the Mongols in
1219. During the reign of Amir Temur, a new city-
fortress was founded 5-7 km west of Ancient Akhsi.
[1:60] The “Boburnoma” provides valuable information
about this very place: The books mention Akhsi
kat…
There is no larger settlement in Fergana than Andijan.
Umarshaikh Mirza made it his capital. The Sayhun River
flows under the fortress. The fortress is located on a
high cliff. Instead of a moat, there are deep cliffs.
Umarshaikh Mirza made it his capital, and built more
cliffs a few steps further out. There are no fortified
fortresses in Fergana. [2:36].According to the
information given in the "Boburnoma", Akhsikent
played an important role in the history of Uzbek
statehood, and was one of the great and strong
fortresses in Fergana. Bobur clearly describes the
location and borders of toponyms: The settlements on
the north side of the Sayhun River: one Akhsidur...
West of Andijan is nine harvest roads... The Akhsi side
of the Sayhun River is a steppe... The Andijan side is a
forest. [2.36] He also touches on the flora and fauna of
Akhsi, emphasizing that its melons are unparalleled in
sweetness, and that there are many white deer, deer,
maral, pheasants and wild rabbits here, and they are
fat: The melon is good. Some kind of melon is called
"Mirtemur", and some melon is unknown, let alone in
the world. The Bukhara melon is famous. When I was in
Samarkand, I brought Akhsidin and Bukharadin melons
and cut them in one sitting. The Akhsidin melon was no
match for it.
There are many white deer... Deer, pheasants, and
lynxes are found in abundance, and they are fat and fat.
[2.36]
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
The toponym Akhsi is also mentioned in the work
"Hudud ul-Olam" written in the 10th century. This
toponym is used in two places in the work as
"Akhsikat", and was first used in the work's "Speech
about Rivers" section to describe the regions through
which the Uzgand (Qaradarya) river, an upper tributary
of the Syrdarya, flows: Another one is the Uzgand
river... It flows through the city of Uzgand, the city of
Bab (Pop), Akhsikat, Khujand, and Banokat. [3:9]
In the section “About the Movarunnahr region and its
cities”, detailed information is given about the city,
stating that it is one of the large cities of Fergana, that
the residence of the emir and the ayans is also here,
that it is located at the foot of the mountain, on the
banks of the Syrdarya River, and that there are many
silver and gold deposits in its mountains: Akhsikat is a
settlement of Fergana, the residence of the emir and
the responsible ayans is Erur; a large city, located on
the banks of the Hashart River; at the foot of the
mountain. There are many silver and gold deposits in
its mountains. [3:15-16] Bobur recalls in his memoirs
that Akhsin is written in books as “Akhsikat”. Therefore,
we can conclude that he was familiar with this work
created in the 10th century.
The area that was previously called Akhsikat, Akhsi is
now called Akhsikent. Scientists have determined that
kat (kass) and kent (kand) are actually dialectal forms
of one Sogdian word. [4:31] The most common
topoformants in the toponyms of Uzbekistan are kat
(kass) and kent (kand) meaning “village, city,
settlement”.
The word akhsi was used in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic
as a homonym in the form of akhs in the following
meanings: 1) trade; 2) exchange; 3) fortress, fortress.
According to Y. Uzoqov, A. Aliyev, akhsi, in its “trade”
meaning, was the basis for the toponym Akhsikent.
In our opinion, the etymon of the homonymous word
akhsi, meaning “fortress, fortress,” is more likely to be
the name of the Aksikent icon. Thus, the icon, which
consists of the morphemes akhsi and kent, means
“fortified city.” [5:38].
In his memoirs, Bobur gave interesting information
about Koson, now Kosonsoy, along with other cities in
Fergana. In particular, he noted its location, the purity
of its air, and the abundance of beautiful gardens, but
because all these gardens were located on the banks of
the stream, he compared it to a fur coat with a fur
lining: Another Koson, located north of Akhsi. It is a
smaller town. For example, the Andijan water comes
from Osh, and the Akhsi water comes from Koson. It is
a place with good air. There are pottery gardens. And
the pottery gardens are all located on the banks of the
stream, so they say, "offer your fur." There is a
prejudice between the people of Osh and Koson in
terms of cleanliness and air. [2:36]. During Bobur's
time, Koson was one of the seven cities in Fergana.
Ancient Koson, which has a history of almost two
thousand years, occupies an important place in the
history of our country. There are various sources of
information about the origin of the name of the city of
Koson. In particular, in the work of the unknown author
“Hudud ul olam” (X), it is mentioned in the style
of
Koson by Kason, Samaniy and Yakut Hamaviy (XII-XIII)
centuries. According to information, this word is a
modified form of the word Kushan, and it is said that a
sound change occurred between the words until the IX
century.
According to H. Hasanov, the word Kushan is actually a
folk name, a modification of the name Koshan - Kushan.
Iranian scientist Said Nafisiy, Dr. Muin, Uzbek scientist
N. Mahmudov and I. Yuldoshev came to the conclusion
that “Koson” is an assimilation of the word “kosibon”.
[6:119-120].
According to S. Qorayev, the name Koson is actually
derived from the word kas (kat) - "village". [5:212]
According to Is'hoqkhon Ibrat, the toponym Koson was
formed on the basis of the word "kason" meaning
people, and later the vowel sound a in the first syllable
of the word turned into o: kas - "person" + on - lar >
kason > Kason > Koson. In our opinion, this is a much
simpler interpretation. The history of the city and the
historical archaeological monuments there allow us to
conclude that the name Kosonsoy is a product of the
linguistic development of the word Kushan. [7:146] The
fact that the city was the capital of the Fergana state
belonging to the Kushan kingdom in the 1st century BC
clarifies the above conclusion. The city mentioned in
the Memur as Koson is now called Kosonsoy. The
history of the formation of the toponym Kosonsoy is
interesting. Initially, the city was called Koson. A stream
flows through the center of the city, starting from the
Chatkal mountain range with the name Chilkuduksoy...
The stream flowing through the city of Koson was called
Kosonsoy, referring to its location... Later, the name of
the stream passed into the name of the city
(polysonym) that formed it, that is, the city of Koson
was called Kosonsoy. [7:147] However, in colloquial
speech among the people, as noted in the
"Boburnoma", the toponym Koson is actively used.
The toponym of the present-day city of Namangan is
also mentioned in the work in one place as Ghaznai
Namangan, which was a settlement in the northern
part of the Fergana region during the reign of Bobur.
Bobur, not finding it necessary to besiege the Arkhiyon
fortress that Ahmad Tanbal had entered, descended to
Ghaznai Namangan, one sharia distance from this
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
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fortress, and stayed in this land for thirty to forty days:
Not finding the Arkhiyon fortress a safe place to
besiege, he descended to Ghaznai Namangan in one
sharia. We were in this land for thirty to forty days.
Tanbal was in the Arkhiyon fortress. [2:74] The well-
known toponymist scholar H. Hasanov commented on
the name Namangan and wrote: “This name must have
been first mentioned in the “Boburnoma”.” [6:105]
Bobur mentioned Namangan as a village in his
"Boburnoma". When the ancient capital of the Fergana
Valley, Akhsi, was destroyed by earthquakes in 1620, its
population moved to the nearby Namangan, and
Namangan expanded and gained importance. In
particular, the foundation document of 1643 mentions
it as a city. [6:97-98].
There is no clear consensus on the origin of the
toponym Namangan, but among the people the name
Namangan is widely known as “Namakkon”, which
means “salt mine” in Persian. Ishaqkhon Tora Ibrat, in
the “History of Fergana” section “History of
Namangan”, explains that there is no clear scientific
interpretation of the toponym Namangan, either
because this region is new, or because we, the people
of Islam, pay too much attention to religious books and
do not attach importance to history. He also cites the
following view, which has been passed down from
mouth to mouth from our ancestors, due to the lack of
a known book on the history of Namangan: For
example, this Namangan is not originally Namangan.
The Persian word is simply namakon - salt mine. This
means that in the Chigatai language, there is no original
gon, this dialect is Persian. In the word "chigatay" there
is "kan" or "gan" or "kan"...
For example, Namangan was originally a desert - a salt
lake where no one lived, nine hundred years ago, and
at that time, Abdullah Khan, one of the khans of
Bukhara, came to this Fergana region, dug cisterns
everywhere, built domes on top of the wells for the
faithful, and did many good things for the people. That
man came to the land of Namangan and... wanted to
build a city here because it had a river on one side and
a mountain on the other, and ordered a person who
was in the position of an aghali among them to build a
city, and when it was time to build a city, the entire river
side of that land was a salt lake. Therefore, he called it
a salt mine, that is, a salt mine. This word "namak kon"
is written as "gon" in Persian, and "namak-kon" is called
"namangon", and the "nun" is added to the word
"namakon", which is originally "namakkon". [8:36]
Some historians interpret the word Namangan
etymologically as "Novmakon", that is, "new place".
Also, the toponym Namangan has the meanings
"Namoyon" - "showing off", "Navmangan" - "new
palace on the bank of the river". [6:98] In our opinion,
the interpretation given by Is'hoqkhon Ibrat in his work
"History of Fergana" is justified.
The villages of Karnon and G'ova, which are now in the
city of Chust, are also mentioned in the "Boburnoma".
Bobur's great-uncle Sultan Mahmudkhan is traveling
from Tashkent to Andijan to help his nephew. After
crossing the Kandirlak pass, he meets his brother Sultan
Ahmadkhan in the land of Zirqon and Karnon: After
crossing the Dobandin, two khans were killed in the
Zirqon and Karnon navakhs. They spent a day in the
Karnon navakhs. [2:91] Here it is mentioned as the
Karnon navakhs, but below, in a dream that Bobur's
loyal servant Qutluk Muhammad Barlos had, it is
mentioned as the city of Karnon in the language of
Khoja Ubaydullah: Qutluk Muhammad Barlos said,... I
dreamed, Khoja Ubaydullah said, Bobur is in a village
called Tsar Karnon. [2:100]. In the memoir, Karnon is
mentioned as a place where Bobur hid from enemies
and saved his life. The first root of the toponym Karnon
is “kar”, which means “city”, “nest”, “enclosed place”.
It is clear from this that the village of Karnon is ancient
and in ancient times was a large, enclosed village.
[6:116].
In his memoir, Bobur called the G'ovasoy, which starts
from the southern slope of the Chatkal Range,
Karnonsoy because it flows through the Karnon region,
and noted that this stream emerges from G'avo from
the current village of G'avo. G'avo is a very ancient
village, and finds dating back to the 1st-4th centuries
AD have been found. The main root of the term G'avo
is "g'ov" - in Persian it means "village", "village".
[6:114]. In the memoir, it is used in the form of G'avo:
The Karnon river is coming out of Gavodin, we have
arrived. Baba Sayrami said, you stay here, I will go and
carefully follow the G'avo road. [2:98]
Topohydronyms are the names of water bodies that
arise on the basis of attribution to place names. The
stream flowing through the Karnon region is named
after this area. Within the toponymic system of the
language, this phenomenon is called transonymization
(the transition of a noun with one type of proper noun
to a noun with another type of proper noun). [9:84]. In
the above example, the name of a village has been
changed to the name of a water div. There are many
such toponyms in the work. For example, the village
near Akhsi is Sang, and Bobur calls the stream flowing
through this area the Sang stream: Most of us were
dismounted before we reached Sang. Sang is the
second Shari'ah of the two Shari'ahs. After passing
Sang, we did not see any other people, and the Sang
River continued upstream. [2:97] The village of Sang is
now in the Pop region, and it is still called Sang without
any change. There are several legends about how the
village was called Sang. One of the commanders
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
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appointed by the Arab Caliphate, Hasti Jalil Hasan, son
of Shifazil, subdued Chust, and on his way back, he
came to the village and asked for water. When no one
gave him water, he said, "Their people are harder than
stones." Another legend says that when a grave was
dug to bury Khoja Abdullah Ansari and Khoja Ibadullah
Alamdari, the earth came out hard, so the Arabs said,
"Sangzarang is a Buddhist." [6:110-111]. Sang (f. stone;
scale stone) [10:438] means stone, and the cited
narrations are also united by the theme of hardness.
The fortresses located in the Namangan region, Pop,
Pishkhoran, and Navkand, are also mentioned in the
work.
The fortress of Pop is a fortress and one of the ancient
cities in the Aksi region, and Bobur's struggle against
Jahongir Mirzo, Ahmad Tanbal, and Uzun Hasan also
included Pop. In the "Boburnoma", Pop is mentioned as
a strong fortress: One of the strong fortresses of Aksi is
the fortress of Pop. The people of Pop are guarding the
fortress of Pop and sending us people. [2:94].
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The Pishkhoran fortress is a fortress on the right bank
of the Syrdarya River, located near the village of
Peshkurgan in the Yangikurgan district of the present-
day Namangan region. Bobur's struggle against Ahmad
Tanbal is partly connected with the Pishkhoran
fortress: We landed and came to the Pishkhoran
governor. It seems that Tanbal's men entered the
Pishkhoran fortress. [2:74]. There are different
accounts of the name of this village. In particular, Bobur
came to the village during the wars for the Fergana
throne and called it Peshkhoran. Local residents say
that Bobur called it Peshkurgan because the fortress
appeared to be a leader on his way when he entered
the village. There are also opinions that Peshkurgan -
peshi Karan, "in front of the Karan ditch, or in front of
the fort." [6:105].
In some places in the memoir, Bobur also calls this
village Bishkhoran: Navkanddin tog sari Bishkhoran
tarafigaga chopkun maslakhatigā gorili.[2:94]. In the
work, we can also see such a linguistic phenomenon,
i.e. the sonorization of consonants at the beginning of
a word, in the toponyms Chagonsaroy-Jigansaroy.
Although the sonorization of consonants at the
beginning of a word is widespread in the Oghuz group
of Turkic languages, it is also found in the Karluk and
Kipchak languages. Bobur Mirzo made effective use of
this linguistic phenomenon and used toponyms
beginning with a sonorous and sonorous sound, such as
Pishkhoran-Bishkhoran, Chagonsaroy-Jigansaroy, with
their variants.
The dictionary also mentions the fortress in the
territory of the present-day Namangan region, the
Navkand fortress. This fortress was located near Akhsi,
and part of the battles against Ahmad Tanbal took place
here: At that time, Shahboz came and sat in front of the
fortress of Navkand, and we crossed the Khujand River
near Bichrota and went to Navkand to Shahboz. [2:94].
In historical sources, this city, called Navkand, Navkat,
Navkent, means in Sogdian nav - "new", kat - "village",
a new village.
CONCLUSION
Thus, the work "Boburnoma" is an important scientific
source for studying the Uzbek literary language of the
late 15th - early 16th centuries, the history, geography,
including onomastics, and in particular toponymy, of
the countries of Central Asia, Afghanistan, and India.
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